one of my staple aussie beers. one of my first loves as far as craft beer goes, and one of the only sweet beers I actually like. it pours a clear coppery red color, with a robust lace head just off white. aromatics of rich red malt, sweet caramel, and of all things roasted corn. its got that starchy sweetness and late summer vibe. the taste is malty of course, but its layered, with various sweets from honey to toffee to molasses each appearing and receding. not a whole lot of hops here, just some English bittering stuff towards the finish. the feel is great too, its clean for a sweeter beer, not a big long drying aftertaste but a short burst of fresh grains followed by basically nothing. unique in the beer world, especially in this style. good enough bubbles, hyper refreshing when ice cold, and one of the better james squire offerings. I cant tell you how many liters of this I consumed from 2007-2010! wish we could get this in the united states through commercial rather than subversive avenues.

Coming in a 345ml bottle; BB 31/10/13, served cool in a short-stemmed goblet.

Appearance: it pours a bright reddish copper colour, rather than amber, coming with a thin layer of light-beige foamy head and rather lively carbonation.Smell: syrupy-chestnutty and lubricating caramely on the nose, on top of sour-sweet prunes and lots of overripe fruit esters; given a good swirl, the ripe melon aroma comes to the fore, along with more estery elements, grassy hoppiness, and full-bodied honey-ish malts. Altogether the nose is a touch too sweet and estery at the expense of a balance.Taste: quite fizzy on the entry, the thin-bodied foretaste is lubricating and caramely, featuring random flavours of brown prunes, licorice, and random nutty malts, then a rough mouthfeel of semi-acidic fruit esters and spicy bitterness catches up, rendering a rather rough, chewy and then sugary-slick finish with quite restrained bitterness.Mouthfeel & Overall: the mouthfeel, as described above, is indeed not smooth and even rough, which is not helped by the sharp-ish carbonation which comes simply too much to pair with the boring flavour. At times, this medium-bodied beer tastes a bit green-ish to me, that the conditioning perhaps was shortened for unknown reasons.